U.S. CHARGES SEMINOLE IN PANTHER DEATH

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday charged Seminole Indian Tribe Chairman James Billie with violating the Endangered Species Act for killing a Florida panther in 1983, Billie's attorney in Fort Lauderdale said.

The department's case against Billie, who claims the right to hunt on Indian land, could set a precedent in determining whether Indians' rights supersede government regulations to protect endangered species on reservations.

The Florida panther is on the verge of extinction, and state game authorities estimate that 28 to 30 of the animals are still alive.

"The presumption has always been that the Seminoles have the right to hunt and fish on their own land," Billie's attorney Bruce S. Rogow said Tuesday night. "There has never been a decision with regard to the Endangered Species Act overriding treaty rights."

Billie could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. Rogow said he had not talked with Billie and did not know where he was.

"The case is going to be vigorously defended, beginning with the principle that it involves Indian sovereignty," Rogow said. He said Billie would plead innocent during his April 23 arraignment hearing.

The charge Billie is facing is a misdemeanor, carrying a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $20,000 fine, or both. But Donald A. Carr, chief of the Justice Department's wildlife and marine resources section, told The New York Times on Tuesday that the government was not interested in seeking retribution.

Carr told the newspaper that the department wanted to set a precedent showing that native Americans must adhere to the Endangered Species Act.

Billie, leader of the 1,500-member Seminole Tribe, based near Hollywood, admitted killing the panther on the Big Cypress Indian Reservation in the central Everglades on Dec. 1, 1983.

He told state wildlife officials who arrested him that he was immune from their law because the panther was killed on Indian land and the slaying was one of his tribe's religious practices and part of his training to become a medicine man.

A Collier County circuit judge dismissed the charges against Billie in July 1985, ruling that state hunting and fishing laws do not apply to American Indians on reservations.

The charges against Billie were reinstated by the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland last October. That case has not been resolved.

Rogow, a law professor at Nova University, said hunting panthers is part of the Seminoles' religious traditions and is protected as freedom of religion under the First Amendment. He said he would also argue that if the Seminoles are subject to the Endangered Species Act, they were never told that by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.

"There's a great concern about bringing these charges because of the lack of respect to the Seminole Nation we think this shows," Rogow said.

Rogow said the Seminoles by cultural tradition and heritage have great interest in preserving endangered species.

"I do find a bit of irony in that the white man, who has caused the greatest danger to animal life in the Everglades, is basically the one prosecuting Chairman Billie," Rogow said.

He said Billie was the only person to be prosecuted for killing a Florida panther. Most panthers are killed by cars and trucks traveling through the Everglades on Alligator Alley.

He also said that because of cross-breeding in the wild, there is considerable debate over whether the animal Billie killed was a Florida panther.